Oakland Zoo to move their last female elephant to Tennessee where she’ll have more friends

OAKLAND, Calif. (KGO) — Come June, the Oakland Zoo could have the final remaining elephant within the Bay Space.

This comes after the zoo introduced plans to maneuver their solely feminine named Donna to an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee.

Weighing in at a whopping 9,000 kilos, 44-year-old Donna the elephant has been a staple on the Oakland Zoo since 1989.

And for greater than three a long time, nearly all of her time right here was spent together with her finest pal Lisa, one other feminine elephant across the similar age.

“They’d spend each night time sleeping subsequent to one another typically time, bodily contact, they spend nearly all of their time in shut proximity,” Colleen Kinzley, the VP of Animal Care, Conservation and Analysis on the Oakland Zoo stated.

However Lisa was euthanized again in March over deteriorating well being points.

“Within the week or so following Lisa’s dying, we undoubtedly seen a giant distinction, she was unsettled, she was calling, vocalizing for Lisa,” Kinzley stated. “We simply know that not having these feminine relationships is leaving a really huge gap in her social alternative and her general high quality of life.”

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Kinzley says her crew labored with the American Zoo Affiliation on a brand new plan for Donna to be round different feminine elephants.

On Wednesday, they introduced Donna will likely be moved to an elephant sanctuary in Tennessee.

“There are three feminine elephants in location of their facility the place there could be room for Donna, and so they’re about Donna’s age and so they have about the identical social expertise that Donna has,” she stated. “It’s a little bit like a courting service for buddies that we’re doing right here.”

Donna’s departure leaves Oakland’s different elephant, a male named Osh, as the one elephant in the complete Bay Space.

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The San Francisco Zoo introduced the closure of their elephant exhibit again in December of 2004.

However Kinzley says Osh will not be alone for lengthy.

“We’re engaged on the concept of bringing in different younger males to Oakland, perhaps having a bull group, that is one of many issues that we’re contemplating,” she stated.

As for Donna, as a result of the small print of her transfer are nonetheless being methodically labored out, the zoo estimates her departure to occur someday in mid-June.

“I believe all of us acknowledge how necessary it’s for her to get again with some friends,” she stated.

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